


cook with love (to make food for the soul)

by inlovewithimpossibility



Series: cerys' s8 episode codas [7]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Bonding, Domestic Fluff, Episode: s08e05 Prochnost, F/M, Family Bonding, Family Feels, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2019-11-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:00:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21574894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inlovewithimpossibility/pseuds/inlovewithimpossibility
Summary: 'I don't really cook.''That makes sense.'An expansion on the beginning sequence of 8x05 within which Oliver takes it upon himself to try and remedy a gap in Mia's education. The kitchen.
Relationships: Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak
Series: cerys' s8 episode codas [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1518755
Comments: 42
Kudos: 246





	cook with love (to make food for the soul)

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly couldn't get this out my head after the episode. A special thanks to Lexi (@lexiblackbriar) for encouraging me to write it and reading it over, you're an utter gem <3

Oliver smiles as he lets William and Mia into the apartment after another successful day of training. It’s been an odd week; William and Curtis have been working on triangulating a precise location for what they need before they make their way to Russia so they’ve been stuck in a form of stasis.

Perfectly odd when your adult kids have just travelled 20 years into the past.

It’s been a real eye-opener to see them interact, not only with Oliver but with each other. Despite the tragic fact that they’ve only known each other for less than a year, they can squabble just as well as he and Thea.

He’s spent most of his time training Mia which has been an odd experience all around. She’s an incredible fighter and her archery skills are top-notch. Oliver can tell that she’s not all that experienced out in the field though by how nervous the idea of specific situations make her.

William has spent the week getting reacquainted with the technology of his youth. They haven’t gone an hour yet without him mumbling about processing speeds or elegance of design but he does seem to be enjoying himself nonetheless.

The evenings have been spent far more intimately in the old apartment. It’s hard for Oliver to call it home, he doesn’t think a house without his wife could ever truly feel like home to him but as the week’s gone on, he’s found he’s been looking forward to returning to the small apartment.

Even if he has been sleeping on the couch.

One particular thing Mia said today has stuck in Oliver’s mind.

He doesn’t really know why. There’s been far more concerning revelations that have left Mia’s lips over the past week. For some reason, however, these four words are stuck in Oliver’s brain.

_I don’t really cook._

As he told Mia earlier, it totally tracks. Whilst Oliver managed to give Felicity a few cooking lessons in their months at the cabin, her skills never really evolved past chopping vegetables and over-salted scrambled eggs.

It’s not that Mia’s lack of cooking skill surprises him, it’s more that it saddens him. Teaching William to cook in the year he got with him was one of the best experiences of Oliver’s life and he wishes he could have shared that with his daughter as well.

“Ugh, I am starving. Can we have something greasier for dinner tonight? Not that your meals haven’t been amazing but I’m not really used to all this cleanness…” Mia groans as she boosts her body onto the counter, looking over at Oliver shyly. He can tell she’s a little worried about offending him so she’s holding back but it’s clear that underneath her tentativeness, she’s got a pout and puppy eyes that could rival her mother’s.

And if Oliver’s being honest, even the glimpse of them has him melting just like he does with Felicity.

“How does mac and cheese sound?” He offers and laughs as Mia’s face lights up and William’s head pops up from the tablet he’s looking at with a similar joyous expression. “Alright, c’mon. You two can give me a hand tonight.” He declares, having to hide the smirk as the joy on both of their faces immediately turns to indignation.

“Dad, I told you earlier, I don’t really cook...” Mia tries but Oliver just shakes his head.

“Exactly why you should learn. I dread to think how many times your mother must have set the fire alarm off in the cabin.” He presses, reaching his hand out to help her down. Mia looks between it and him with a dubious expression before jumping down lithely, giving his offered hand a wide birth.

“It was pretty much a weekly occurrence. I always knew to have the extinguisher ready when Mom told me she was ‘experimenting’.” Mia chuckles as she rounds the counter. Oliver and William share a horrified expression; they both remember some of Felicity’s more interesting ‘experiments’ in the kitchen.

The dismissive tone in Mia’s voice mixes with the intense affection that she has whenever she speaks of her mother to make Oliver’s heart pang. The want to call Felicity grows with every breakthrough he has with William and Mia. It feels wrong to be experiencing this without her, but he knows that William’s concerns about the timeline are valid. It’s not as if Felicity would do anything but come to Star City straight away and they don’t know what Mia interacting with her infant self will do.

“Mia, what are you doing?” William asks, drawing Oliver’s attention back to his daughter. She’s opened the cabinet that Oliver filled with groceries the other day and is stood on her toes obviously searching for something.

“Looking for mac and cheese… duh.” Mia answers as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world and Oliver frowns as he realises that she’s looking for boxed mac and cheese. In his house.

“Oh god,” William mutters under his breath and Oliver notices Mia looking between the two of them with a baffled expression on her face. He can’t fully concentrate on it, however, because he’s still shocked at Mia’s assumption that he would have such a product in his cabinet.

“What? I thought we agreed on mac and cheese?” Mis questions further and the confusion in her voice makes Oliver take a deep breath.

“And we will. But we’re going to make it.” He explains. Mia’s eyes widen almost comically and Oliver hears William snort behind him.

“You mean from scratch? Won’t that take forever? Dad, I’m starving…” Mia groans and it takes a lot of Oliver to not melt at the way her shoulders slump and her head tilts. A more obvious pout crosses her lips and it’s only the thought that all this training requires proper nutrition that stops Oliver from caving.

“You won’t win this one, Mia. Take it from your older and wiser big brother. No boxed mac and cheese will enter Dad’s house. It’s practically rule number one.” William interrupts at the perfect moment, hopping down from the stall and heading around the island himself. He taps Mia on the shoulder with a cocky smile but jumps back a mile with a terrified expression when Mia whirls around towards him with a glare.

“Actually rule number one is no tech at the dinner table. Between you and Felicity, I’d never get to have a normal conversation again.” Oliver jumps in, diffusing the situation as best he can. William scoffs and reaches into the fridge to pull out the bacon.

“You think you’re so funny…” He mutters under his breath and Oliver smirks at the smile that remains on his face. He’s so grateful that the easy back and forth they were getting to before Oliver went to prison is coming back.

“Hang on, can we loop back around to the fact that we’re making mac and cheese from scratch? Is that even possible?” Mia pipes up and it’s kind of adorable how wide her eyes are at the concept.

“Oh, you got your work cut out for you with this one, Dad,” William smirks as he reaches for a chopping board and Oliver winces as Mia rounds towards him once more.

“Hush you and start chopping. Mia, c’mere.” He commands, pointing at the chopping board William’s holding before gesturing to Mia to join him by the stove. William does as he asks, chopping the bacon up into small pieces and Mia does too, walking tentatively towards Oliver. “You needn’t look so worried. It’s just a stove.”

“I’m not worried!” Mia insists indignantly, reaching for a saucepan. “So, what’s first?”

She spins the saucepan around in her hand as if it’s a fighting baton and Oliver smirks at the fake bravado. It’s extremely adorable. Not that he’d ever tell her that for fear of undoing all the progress he’s made this week.

“Fill that up with water. We need to boil the pasta.” He tells her and Mia nods, heading over to complete the task.

Mia follows his instructions with minimal grumbling. It’s clear she’s far less comfortable in this environment than she was in the bunker earlier and she’s far less interested in learning new things within it obviously as well. She fumbles a little with measuring things out but she’s not as much of an obvious disaster in the kitchen as her mother which is a saving grace.

There’s a brief moment where things nearly go pear-shaped. William steps up to fry the bacon as Oliver talks Mia through whisking the roux they’re making and the presence of her brother next to her seems to put Mia back on the defensive.

“The oil’s flicking at me!” She hisses, jumping back from the stove and William scoffs.

“God, you’re so dramatic. It’s nowhere near you.” He retaliates, rolling his eyes and Oliver frowns. It’s an odd sensation to have to parent his grown children when he still very much considers them to be children.

“Do I actually need to put you guys in time out?” Oliver questions, looking between the two of them with a raised eyebrow.

“We’re not children!” They both shout simultaneously before they look at each other in surprise. It has them mellowing and they share a smile that makes Oliver’s heart glow.

“Oh really?” He smirks and Mia blushes whilst William merely shrugs. “Mia, concentrate on stirring or it’ll get lumpy. William, you’re about to burn that.”

That has the two of them turning back to the stove with wide eyes as they concentrate on the food in front of them.

Things run smoother from there on out and Oliver smirks as Mia’s eyes light up when he transfers the cheese into the sauce and stirs it in.

“Surely we need more cheese than that?” She pouts when Oliver finishes stirring and he frowns, looking up at her. It’s clear that she’s inherited her love of cheese from her mother and she tracks his movements in the exact same way that Felicity would when his cooking involved her favourite dairy product. 

“There’s literally most of a block in there,” Oliver tells her and Mia raises an eyebrow with an incredibly serious expression.

“And?”

“We’re putting parmesan in there as well.” William grins, walking over with the block of the other cheese and the grater.

“Excellent.” Mia grins, watching with glee once more as William sets about helping Oliver compile the dish. They drain the pasta and mix in the sauce with the bacon, the kids don’t even grumble when Oliver reaches for some kale.

It’s a vast improvement on the cries he used to get from William at the mere sight of the green leaf and Mia… well, she wasn’t thinking of anything other than breast milk when Oliver left the cabin.

“Wait, is that not done?” Mia frowns as they pour the mixture into a ceramic dish.

“No, we need to put that in the oven,” William explains and Mia’s brow furrows as she looks between her brother and father. She once again looks every bit the confused and sweet child Oliver thinks of her as and it pulls at his heart gutterly.

“For how long?” She questions, her voice rising

“Twenty minutes?” Oliver offers and Mia sighs, flopping her head down onto her arms. She’s every bit a daughter and a sister right now and it’s the lowest Oliver has seen her walls since she arrived in the past.

“That’s so long!” She huffs and Oliver smirks, swapping the ceramic dish for the pan he slipped in earlier whilst the kids were bickering.

“Lucky for you, I made some garlic bread earlier.” He declares and Oliver thinks that the way that their faces light up might be worth every hardship he’s ever endured. It’s the most magical sight.

“Yes!”

“What did you eat growing up? I assume not a lot of vegetables.” Oliver questions as Mia and William tear apart the garlic bread gleefully. Mia swallows heavily and goes to speak before she stops herself with a chuckle. The affection is clear in her face and voice and it makes Oliver’s heart clench all over again.

“Mom’s not too bad with anything that she just needs to put in the oven so roasted veg or raw was pretty much the only way we’d eat them. Pretty much everything we had, we always had a salad with it to up the vitamin intake. But yeah, anything that really involved cooking per se was a write-off.” Mia explains and Oliver’s shoulders relax. It’s not that he doesn’t trust Felicity but he’s had many a bad interaction with her and kitchens. To hear directly from Mia that she didn’t starve growing up and she didn’t even eat that unhealthily is a major relief.

“Did your mother ever master the omelette?” He can’t resist the question and he revels in the way both Mia and William burst out laughing. 

“No, but so many failed attempts.”

“How did you get food when you moved away from home?”

“I’d fight for it. When Connor came into the picture, I’d fight for the money and he’d cook. He’s surprisingly good at it, you should taste his chicken cacciatore.” Mia smiles as she fiddles with the piece of bread she’s holding. It’s something that’s been baffling him, the soft affection in his daughter’s voice when she speaks of the boy his best friend will apparently one day adopt.

There’s something between Mia and Connor, Oliver would be blind to have not seen it, but he’s not entirely sure whether it’s platonic or romantic. As far as he and Mia have come in the past week, he’s also with it enough to know that they’d only go backwards if he quizzed her about her love life now.

It’s just something to keep an eye out for, he thinks.

“And now?”

“I cook most of the time, or we get takeout. We’re well fed, Dad, don’t worry.” William smirks and Oliver nods. A silence settles over them but it’s far more comfortable than it had been at the start of the week. Mia smiles instead of sitting on edge and William’s shoulders are about a foot lower than they were for most of the first day.

Oliver actually finds himself sad when the oven timer pulls him away from the small moment but the joy he gains from the excitement in his kids’ expressions as he plates up the food quickly replaces his melancholy.

“What do you think?” Oliver questions as Mia takes her first bite, her fork laden with the sticky food.

“S’mooo good.” She mumbles with her mouth full and Oliver and William both chuckle.

“Better that you cooked it as well, no?” William asks his sister and Mia’s eyes narrow as she swallows her mouthful.

“Eh, I think you’re unaware of the excellence of boxed mac and cheese.” She states declaratively, waving her fork at the both of them and Oliver lets the sound surround him and fill him up as laughter surrounds the room once more.


End file.
